High performance façade made of ventilated Swisspearl® fiber cement panels

From Le Corbusier to Herzog & de Meuron and to Morphosis – Swisspearl® has always managed to inspire the great designers, and it shares with them the passion for producing a high-end design and exploring new possibilities.

At Denver Botanic Garden an iconic structure raises awareness for important work in botanical and environmental research. Both form and skin of the building were inspired by natural phenomena – the former mimics the collision of two tectonic plates; the latter recalls the honeycomb pattern of a beehive composed of almost ve hundred hexagonal Swisspearl® panels.

The Pyramid‘s technologically advanced, high performance skin (façade), designed by Studio NYL, is clad in four-foot-wide hexagonal-shaped ventilated Swisspearl® fiber cement panels (Swisspearl® CARAT, Black opal 7020R) that mimic the geometric ef ciency of nature‘s wax honeycombs. Thirty panels feature photovoltaic collectors tasked with gathering energy for interior exhibits. In addition, the central portion of the structure and multiple glass portholes are constructed of electrochromic glass, which adjusts in opacity from clear to 97 percent opaque throughout the day, based on solar intensity, or at the ip of a switch as the building‘s program requires. At sundown, the windows lighten to reveal the building‘s colorful interior exhibits and exterior ora nearby.